The McKinnon story continues

[jaydor 233]

McKinnon Air Services began life, when Aerosoft brought out the Twin Otter extended for FSX.  I just loved flying around the Canadian inlets in the Strait of Georgia with ORBX PNW and decided to create my own fictitious company.

It had to sound authentic and be professional looking and I wanted it to be a Canadian company.  Long before FSX I was into photography, in the days of the SLR camera.  Interchangeable lenses were a must back then and the best were Nikon.  
Something that was well beyond my means back then.  But there were lenses available from a company called, Makinnon that I used.  The more I played around with that name, the idea's were unfolding.  It sounded Canadian with Scottish ancestry, 

(I am Welsh, by the way).  So I changed the A in Makinnon to McKinnon with the capital K as the Scottish way and McKinnon was born.  I decided at the time the the company colours would be Blue and yellow (the colour of my mountain bike).  I have been designing logos before I came to flight simming and had a working knowledge of PhotoShop, so painting became a natural for me.  But as in all things, the painting had to be learned and as the years progressed improvements came.

The McKinnon Air Services named logo was simple, McKinnon in Italic bold with a red C and the words Air Services also in red.  But the badge logo?  I wanted it to look good and portray a sense of professionalism as a successful company.  I had been using coats of arms in many logo's that I had designed so it was an idea to use the McKinnon Clan, arms shield.  Many Scottish and British heraldry arms, use a garter (belt) in their design and early air racing and achievements were recognised with a ribboned leaf wreath.  So McKinnon's badge is a combination of the three.  Another requirement for all McKinnon aircraft, is that each aircraft carries the name of an historical Canadian Fort or a Hudson Bay Company trading post.

All McKinnon paints and name are fictitious and are not related to any real company. All fictitious logo's are designed by me.

Now I have progressed into X-Plane 11 (also staying with FSX though).  My first paint there is the standard 737-800, but converted into a 800F freighter.  That will be a future project for a McKinnon combined passenger/freighter that the Canadians use a lot.  So now back to this topic and my latest paint for the XP11 default C172.  

McKinnon has the contract to supply the Canadian Geological Survey with aircraft.  This paint is of C-GBVT in a change of company colour to red, to denote the contract use and set it apart from the rest of the company aircraft. 

Along with the McKinnon markings on the doors, the aircraft also carries both the CoA of the Canada Geological Survey and the University of Calgary.  The survey badge is fictitious, but the University arms are correct.  The happy beaver is used to replace the company badge on the tail, the company badge is on the wheel spats of the wheeled version.  

Close up:

Will make it available on X-Plane.org soon

[HLJames 2,568]

Big Twin Otter my favorite Mc Kinnon aircraft....love the paint and art work!

HLJAMES

[Jean-Jacques 120]

Beautiful work! In the 1970s, I worked for Energy, Mines and Resources of which the Geological Surveys of Canada was part of. The members of the scientific community at GSC never admitted being under the wing of EMR! Brings back nice memorable times dealing with these folks. I look forward flying your colors!

Best regards,  JJ

[jaydor 233]

1 hour ago, HLJames said:

Big Twin Otter my favorite Mc Kinnon aircraft....love the paint and art work!

HLJAMES

I am keeping my fingers, eye's and legs crossed, hoping Aerosoft will release the Twin Otter for X-Plane.  Glad to know you are a company pilot..

[jaydor 233]

1 hour ago, Jean-Jacques said:

Beautiful work! In the 1970s, I worked for Energy, Mines and Resources of which the Geological Surveys of Canada was part of. The members of the scientific community at GSC never admitted being under the wing of EMR! Brings back nice memorable times dealing with these folks. I look forward flying your colors!

Best regards,  JJ

Hi JJ,

Glad you like the paint.  I will post you a link to the download, when available.  Will be pleased knowing you will be with the company as a pilot.. 

[jaydor 233]

The paint above is now available at:

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/38137-cessna-172sp-skyhawk-c-gbvt-for-xp11/